Concílio Regional de Narbona: o in dubio pro reo na inquisição medieval

Abstract

The principle interest rei publicae ne crimina remaneant impunita, pointed as the basement of inquisitive system, proclaims that crimes not remaining unpunished interests to public order. On the other hand, the principle in dubio pro reo or, in its longer formula, satius enim est facinus impunitum relinquere, quam innocentem condemnare, is considered the ground of the safeguards of contemporary criminal law and criminal procedural law. The Provincial Council of Narbonne, celebrated in the context of persecution to cathar heresy, standed in its canon XXIII that should be better to let unpunished a delict than to condemn an innocent. Thus, the medieval inquisition norms relied with a rule-principle that shocked at the idea of no leaving crimes unpunished. Since the study of normative documents of medieval inquisition (bulls and council cannons), the meaning of the principle in dubio pro reo in cathar inquisition and its compatibility to the principle ne crimina remaneant impunita was searched. These documents, taken from three colections (Laertius Cherubinus et al., Franciscus Gaude and Aloysius Tomassetti, and Joannes Dominicus Mansi), themed about medieval heresies and stabilished inquisition procedure in the analysed epoch (from century X till the year 1321). This period refers to the arrival of the heretics to Languedoc untill the last condemnation of a heretic, Guillaume Bélibaste, in this region.